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Lloyd James

Lloyd James

  • Since 9/11, why have we won smashing battlefield victories only to botch nearly everything that comes next? In the opening phases of war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, we mopped the floor with our enemies. But in short order, things went horribly wrong.

    We soon discovered we had no coherent plan to manage the “day after.” The ensuing debacles had truly staggering consequences—many thousands of lives lost, trillions of dollars squandered, and the apparent discrediting of our foreign policy establishment. This helped set the stage for an extraordinary historical moment in which America’s role in the world, along with our commitment to democracy at home and abroad, have become subject to growing doubt. With the benefit of hindsight, can we discern what went wrong? Why have we had such great difficulty planning for the aftermath of war?

    In The Day After, Brendan Gallagher—an Army lieutenant colonel with multiple combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, and a Princeton PhD—seeks to tackle this vital question. Gallagher argues there is a tension between our desire to create a new democracy and our competing desire to pull out as soon as possible. Our leaders often strive to accomplish both to keep everyone happy. But by avoiding the tough underlying decisions, it fosters an incoherent strategy. This makes chaos more likely.

    The Day After draws on new interviews with dozens of civilian and military officials, ranging from US cabinet secretaries to four-star generals. It also sheds light on how, in Kosovo, we lowered our postwar aims to quietly achieve a surprising partial success. Striking at the heart of what went wrong in our recent wars, and what we should do about it, Gallagher asks whether we will learn from our mistakes, or provoke even more disasters? Human lives, money, elections, and America’s place in the world may hinge on the answer.

  • The new arrival of a woman named Mary Todd wedges a rift between Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, but they must resolve their differences if they stand any chance of cracking one of the most harrowing murder cases they have ever faced.

    In the winter of 1839, a sensational disappearance rocks Springfield, Illinois, as headlines announce a local man has accused his two brothers of murder. Not one to pass up an opportunity, Abraham Lincoln takes up the case of the accused with the assistance of his best friend, Joshua Speed, to search for evidence of innocence.

    But just as soon as they begin, Lincoln and Speed find their friendship at grave risk of rupture as they vie for the hand a beautiful new arrival in town: an ambitious, outspoken young woman named Mary Todd. As the trial arrives, can Lincoln and Speed put aside their differences to work together for justice once more? An innocent man’s life may be in the balance—and nothing is as it seems.

    Reimagining one of the greatest unsolved murder mysteries from Abraham Lincoln’s real-life trial cases, A House Divided is the most captivating Lincoln and Speed mystery yet from expert Lincoln scholar Jonathan F. Putnam.

  • Samuel Patton lost his wife to lung fever two years ago. Now, suffering from lung fever himself and closer to eternity every day, he is traveling south through the mountains with his small son and daughter, hoping somewhere in this savage land he can find a good home for them before time runs out. When the two kids find an unconscious man, the three tend to his wounds, care for his horse, and load him into their wagon. Samuel finds a cache of money in the saddlebags of the man the children have named Mr. Black, and he is certain they have taken an outlaw under wing. When the man comes round, he tells them his name is Jess and he can guide them through the thoroughfare pass and on to the town of Hereford in Absaroka Valley, a cowman’s paradise in the mighty mountain range, where he was born. Against his better judgment, Samuel agrees. Only a stone’s throw from Hereford, Samuel is too exhausted to push on and so they make one last camp. It is a decision that nearly kills his daughter when a stampede runs through their camp that night. The Pattons find themselves taking refuge in the midst of the valley where ranchers have declared war on encroaching squatters.

  • From ethics columnist and Harvard lecturer Jeffrey L. Seglin, discover practical tips for succeeding professionally by succeeding socially.

    Practicing business etiquette doesn’t mean pretending to be someone you’re not. Brimming with practical, up-to-date tips on minding your business manners, The Simple Art of Business Etiquette guides you through the tricky territory of office etiquette with real-life stories and workplace scenarios.

    • Become attuned to body language (Don’t gawk at others during meetings or at any other time. It’s creepy.)
    • Engage in thoughtful introductions (Don’t guess at someone’s name if you don’t remember it.)
    • Practice proper email etiquette (Do you really want to be the jerk who sends annoying emails around the office?)
    • Curtail office conflicts (Never punch anyone in the workplace. Never.)
    • Exhibit workplace sensitivity (Listen to your coworkers without cutting them off.)
    • Plus, decode the fifteen most commonly used phrases in business.

    The Simple Art of Business Etiquette proves that minding your manners goes a long way toward successfully advancing your career.

  • A trio of Western stories by Louis L’Amour

    In “Black Rock,” Jim Gatlin, a Texas trail driver, arrives in the town of Tucker where he finds himself quickly drawn into the middle of an all-out battle for the XY Ranch when, due to a case of mistaken identity, he kills the segundo of Wing Cary’s Flying C Ranch. Gatlin is a dead-ringer for Jim Walker, who, like Cary, wants control of the XY. Gatlin is thrown into a situation in which all he can do but fight for his life.

    Seventeen-year-old Shandy Gamble in “Gamble of the KT” is in Perigord with plans to buy a new saddle and bridle with the $500 in reward money he had received for catching two horse thieves, but instead he gets conned out of the money. He returns to the KT Ranch never mentioning what happened. But when he learns the con man is back and hanging out with the June gang, he decides it’s time to get his money back and even the score.

    Always a fighting man, both for the US Army and in battles across the ocean, Tom Kedrick in “Showdown Trail” has been hired to help run off the squatters and outlaws occupying a strip of land claimed to be unusable swamp. When he learns that he is being misled by his new bosses and that the squatters are honest and hardworking settlers, including one of his father’s old friends, he has to determine which side he will fight for.

    Louis L’Amour is the most decorated author in the history of American letters, and his stories are loved the world over.

  • #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Michael Roizen and preventive medicine specialist Dr. Michael Crupain reveal how the food choices you make each day—and when you make them—can affect your health, your energy, your sex life, your waistline, your attitude, and the way you age.

    What if eating two cups of blueberries a day could prevent cancer? What if drinking a kale-infused smoothie could counteract missing an hour’s worth of sleep? When is the right time of day to eat that chocolate chip cookie? And would you actually drink that glass of water if it meant skipping the gym? This revolutionary guide reveals how to use food to enhance our personal and professional lives—and increase longevity to boot.

    What to Eat When is not a diet book. Instead, acclaimed internist Michael Roizen and preventive medicine specialist Michael Crupain offer listeners choices that benefit them the most—whether it’s meals to help them look and feel younger or snacks that prevent diseases—based on the science that governs them.

  • As the author of the bestselling Lost Fleet series, Jack Campbell’s name is well-known to fans of interstellar heroics. Now Campbell brings his keen eye for military adventure and political intrigue to a tale that is earthbound, but no less wondrous …

    In a transformed mid-nineteenth-century America dominated by plantation owners and kept in line by Southern military forces, a mild-mannered academic from Maine, Professor Joshua Chamberlain, stands accused of crimes against the nation. In court alongside him is Abraham Lincoln, whose fiery rhetoric brands him a “threat to the security of the United States of America.” Convicted, Chamberlain is sentenced to forty years hard labor, while Lincoln’s fate is indefinite detention at Fortress Monroe. But Professor Chamberlain then encounters military minds who understand the true ideals upon which the country was founded and who want to foment revolution. To succeed, they need a leader, someone to inspire the people to take up the cause of liberty: Lincoln. All they have to do is flawlessly execute a daring plan to rescue him from the darkest federal prison.

    In The Last Full Measure, Campbell delivers a riveting look at an America where war is imminent, and nothing is as it should be.

  • Forced to take a precipitous route off the rimrocks and down into an unknown valley to escape certain death by four men pursuing him, Pete Knight, a cowhand seeking a job, sees a town ahead in the distance.

    If he can just make it to that town, he believes he will be safe. Little does he know that he is heading into Gunsight, Wyoming, where a long-standing feud between the townsmen and the range men has reached the boiling point.

    Arthur Hobart owner of the Diamond H has issued a warning that if the people of Gunsight do not stop victimizing his cowpunchers, he’s going to bring in his own law enforcer and burn the town down. And the appearance of Pete means only one thing to the townsfolk: Hobart is about to make good on his threat.

    When Pete is jailed, he tries to convince Sheriff Mike Mulaney to get confirmation that he is not who the Gunsighters think he is. But before the matter can be resolved, Pete is lynched in the middle of the night by five men wearing burlap hoods.

    When his Pete’s brother Ben, a US deputy marshal, arrives seeking vengeance for his brother’s hanging, he has even more reason to hate the town and what it represents than those on the Diamond H. But when Hobart tries to use Ben’s arrival for his own advantage, Ben must choose between protecting the town and abandoning his trail of vengeance or standing by while Hobart’s threats become reality.

  • Twenty-nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln has spent his entire adult life running from his past―from the poverty of the dirt-floor log cabin where he was raised, from the dominion of his uneducated father, and from a failed early courtship. But now, Lincoln’s past is racing back to haunt him.

    It is the summer of 1838, and Springfield is embroiled in a tumultuous, violent political season. All of Springfield’s elite have gathered at a grand party to celebrate the Fourth of July. Spirits are high―until a prominent local politician is assassinated in the midst of fireworks. When his political rival is arrested, young lawyer Lincoln and his best friend Joshua Speed are back on the case to investigate.

    It’s no ordinary trial, however, as Lincoln and Speed soon face unwelcome complications. Lincoln’s ne’er-do-well father and stepbrother appear in town and threaten Lincoln’s good name and political future. And before long, anonymous letters start appearing in the local newspapers, with ominous threats that make Lincoln fear for himself and his loved ones.

    As the day of reckoning arrives, the threats against Lincoln continue to escalate. Lincoln and Speed must identify the culprit and fast, before Lincoln loses the race to outrun his past in Final Resting Place, the brilliant third installment of Jonathan F. Putnam’s acclaimed Lincoln and Speed mysteries.

  • First published in 1948, Nothing but the Night marked the auspicious beginning of John Williams’ career as a novelist—a career that would go on to include the classics Stoner and the National Book Award–winning Augustus. In the person of Arthur Maxley, Williams investigates the terror and the waywardness of a man who has suffered an early traumatic experience. As a child, Maxley witnessed a scene of such violence and of such a nature that the evocation of Greek tragedy is inescapable. Now, years later, we move through a single significant day in the grown Arthur Maxley’s life, the day when he is to meet his father, who has been absent for many years. With rare economy and clarity, the story moves at an ever-increasing pace to its unforgettable end.

  • Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. Despite the whispers around town that Moody is a fraud of the basest kind, no one has been able to expose him, and word of his gift has spread, earning him money, fame, and a growing list of illustrious clients.

    One day, while developing the negative from a sitting to capture the spirit of the young son of an abolitionist senator, Moody is shocked to see a different spectral figure develop before his eyes. Instead of the staged image of the boy he was expecting, the camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman. Is it possible that the spirit photographer caught a real ghost? When Moody recognizes the woman in the photograph as the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago, he is compelled to travel from Boston to the Louisiana bayous to resolve their unfinished business―and perhaps save his soul. But more than one person is out to stop him.

    With dramatic twists and redolent of the mood of the Southern Gothic, The Spirit Photographer conjures the Reconstruction era South, replete with fugitive hunters, voodoo healers, and other dangers lurking in the swamp. Jon Michael Varese’s deftly plotted first novel is an intense tale of death and betrayal that shows us how undeniably the ghosts of the past remain with us, and how resolutely they refuse to be quieted.

  • On July 19, 1924, Eric Liddell was on top of the world.

    He was the most famous Briton at the time, having just won the gold in the Olympic 400-meter race. The story of that race―and the one he didn’t run―was told in the popular movie classic Chariots of Fire. But what most of us don’t know is what became of Eric Liddell in the years after the credits rolled.

    As the storm clouds of World War II rolled in, Eric Liddell had already made decisions in his life that gave him the resilience to stand tall while others fell into despair. His strength of character led him to choose an uncertain future in China during World War II to continue helping the Chinese. He lived purposefully, even as his world crumbled and he experienced the horror and deprivations of a Japanese internment camp.

    Eric’s story is a story of hope in the face of uncertainty, resilience in the face of unspeakable odds, and an inspiring vision of what life means, even when the final hour comes.

  • Kit Butler and Lige Turner are weathered trackers—trappers who once lived among the Dakota people as brothers, learning their language, their land, and their way of life. Now, with the fur trade dwindling, they find themselves guides for a wagon train—a group of emigrants leaving behind the comforts of the world they know for the Wild West. The problem is, they have to pass through hostile Dakota Indian territory to reach their destination.

    The members of the wagon train, fresh faces in a wild land, are certain that all this talk about Indians is just stories—a way to keep a control over them. After all, they haven’t seen any sign of Indians … But Kit and Lige know what to look for, and they know they’re being watched.

    When the Indians brutally attack, the stories become a frightening reality. The Dakota warriors tell the emigrants that they must turn around or face their wrath—they will not be allowed to pass through Dakota territory.

    The emigrants have come too far to turn back, but they are not trained to fight—the women and children handily outnumbering the men in the group. Kit and Lige are the only ones who know how to survive out in the wild, and it is their duty to protect the wagon train against the Dakota men they still consider brothers.

  • The Science of Getting Rich is the classic guide to creating wealth through the Law of Attraction. First published in 1910, a hundred years later it inspired Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling book and movie, The Secret.

    According to Wallace D. Wattles, “There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any man, he will get rich with mathematical certainty.”

    The Science of Getting Rich will guide you in developing a vision, strengthening willpower, cultivating gratitude, and receiving life’s abundant gifts.

  • Max Brand wrote hundreds of stories, books, films, and TV shows. His output was so voluminous that though he died in WWII, posthumous books have been published approximately every four months since. This book collects three stories from his early work in Western pulps.

    “Señor Coyote” was first published under Frederick Faust’s pen name John Frederick in two installments in Argosy (6/18/38 - 6/25/38). It was the last Western short novel Faust wrote. It was fitting that the story was published in Argosy since Faust’s earliest Western fiction had been sold to All-Story Weekly and The Argosy owned by The Frank A. Munsey Company, which merged the two magazines in 7/24/20. In this story, Frank Pollard, a small-time rancher down on his luck and owing the bank $500, looks to his legendary friend, Slip Liddell, to give him the money before the banker, Foster, forecloses on his ranch. Liddell refuses to pay Foster even for his friend. Pollard threatens to do something about it, and then the bank is robbed and Foster shot. Will Liddell help when his friend is accused of the crime?

    Only two years into his publishing relationship with Street & Smith, which was almost exclusive between 1921 and 1932, Faust was asked to contribute two Christmas stories to magazines the company published. The first was to Detective Story Magazine — “A Christmas Encounter” (12/23/22) under his Nicholas Silver pseudonym — and the other was the story that follows that he titled “The Power of Prayer.” It appeared under the John Frederick byline in Western Story Magazine (12/23/22). In it Gerald Kern embodies many of those same qualities of a figure found in several of Faust’s Western stories, a gunman who is also a gentleman.

    “The Cure of Silver Cañon” by John Frederick was the second short novel by Faust to appear in Western Story Magazine (1/15/21). In Faust’s Western fiction the mountain desert is a country of the imagination where no man is ever a hero and no man is ever a villain, but rather a mixture of both. This certainly proves the case in this story in which both Lew Carney and Jack Doyle love Mary Hamilton and where we, as readers, can never know with certitude for whose soul it is that Mary Hamilton weeps. The story’s opening is perhaps the most imagistic and at the same time eerie as Faust ever wrote.

  • Johnny D. Boggs turns the battlefield itself into a character in this historical retelling of Custer’s Last Stand, when George Custer led most of his command to annihilation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana in 1876.

    More than forty first-person narratives are used—Indian and white, military and civilian, men and women—to paint a panorama of the battle itself.

    Boggs brings the events and personalities of the Battle of the Little Bighorn to life in a series of first-hand accounts.

  • Within ten days of stepping out of the woods near the town of Moose Creek, Duval is the most popular man in the district. After all, what’s not to like? He is a good listener, generous with his money, a great cook and host, and a hard worker on old Dad Wilbur’s place, which he bought for $1,500. He wins the admiration of Sheriff Nat Adare when he quells and befriends the often-wild Charlie Nash and pays for the damages Charlie has caused in the town saloon.

    The only person in the town that he doesn’t win over is the sheriff’s niece, Marian Lane, who runs the local grocery and has caused more than her share of heartbreak among the young men of the town. What bothers Marian is that no one can learn anything about Duval or his past, other than that he was a cowpuncher who had worked for a taskmaster on the T Bar Ranch. Marian’s curiosity is intensified when Duval runs the thug Larry Jude out of town after he calls Duval a “boy-killer.” But Duval’s past lands in Moose Creek when Discretion, the horse that he loves, is accompanied from the East by the animal’s self-proclaimed groom, Henry.

    Once Duval learns that Henry, who he had known in New York, plans to stay on in Moose Creek, he warns him not to “play no tricks.” Things begin to heat up when Duval attends a dance where he encounters not only Marian but the famous manhunter, Marshal Richard Kinkaid. When a robbery occurs at the same time as the dance, Kinkaid, who has already been baited by Marian to find out who Duval is, promises she will have the answer to her question. So begins a dangerous game of matching wits between Duval and Kinkaid.

  • Newly minted trial lawyer Abraham Lincoln is riding the circuit, traveling by carriage with other lawyers and a judge to bring justice to the remote parts of Illinois. Meanwhile, Lincoln’s close friend Joshua Speed steams up the Mississippi River aboard a steamboat owned by Speed’s father. Suddenly, his journey is interrupted when a rigged card game aboard the ship turns to violence—and then murder.

    Speed enlists Lincoln to defend the accused, but soon they come to discover that more than just the card games are crooked aboard the Speed family’s ship. As the day of judgment hurtles toward them, Lincoln must fight to save the life of his client while also preserving the cause he holds so dear.

    Meticulously researched and deftly plotted, Jonathan F. Putnam’s second Lincoln and Speed mystery, Perish from the Earth, is the superlative follow-up to These Honored Dead, praised by Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin as “Splendid…one of the most enjoyable works of fiction I have read in a long time.”

  • The Los Angeles Times affectionately referred to Freddy Powers as the “Ol’ Blue Eyes of Country Music,” and wrote that if you were to “ask country superstars Willie Nelson, George Jones, or Merle Haggard (they’ll) … tell you that he’s one of country music’s best-kept secrets.”

    The Texas Country Music Hall of Fame inductee has been to the top of the charts as both a producer for Willie Nelson’s Grammy-winning LP Over the Rainbow, and as a songwriter for many of country music legend Merle Haggard’s number one hits.

    Now, for the first time, Freddy recounts the entertaining and emotional stories behind his decades-long roller coaster ride through the music business; his voyage to the top of the charts, and his inspiring battle against Parkinson’s disease. Helping Freddy tell his story are exclusive interviews from fellow country music legends Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, John Rich, Tanya Tucker, The Voice finalist and Powers’ protégé Mary Sarah, along with a host of other Nashville luminaries.

  • Now available for the first time with two additional stories!

    Have you ever wondered what it's like to be bitten by a zombie or live through a bioweapon attack? In Cory Doctorow's collection of novellas, he wields his formidable experience in technology and computing to give us mind-bending sci-fi tales that explore the possibilities of information technology—and its various uses—run amok.

    "Anda's Game" is a spin on the bizarre new phenomenon of "cyber sweatshops," in which people are paid very low wages to play online games all day in order to generate in-game wealth, which can be converted into actual money. Another tale tells of the heroic exploits of "sysadmins"—systems administrators—as they defend the cyberworld, and hence the world at large, from worms and bioweapons. And yes, there is a story about zombies too. Plus, for the first time, this collection includes "Petard" and "The Man Who Sold the Moon."

  • Joshua Speed, the enterprising second son of a wealthy plantation owner, has struck off on his own. But before long he makes a surprising and crucial new acquaintance—a freshly minted lawyer by the name of Abraham Lincoln.

    When an orphaned girl from a neighboring town is found murdered and suspicion falls on her aunt, Speed makes it his mission to clear her good name. Of course, he’ll need the legal expertise of his unusual new friend. Together, Lincoln and Speed fight to bring justice to their small town. But as more bodies are discovered and the investigation starts to come apart at the seams, there’s one question on everyone’s lips: Does Lincoln have what it takes to crack his first murder case?

    Inspired by actual events from the American frontier, Jonathan Putnam’s thrilling debut, These Honored Dead, brings a verve and vigor to the historical mystery genre that readers haven’t seen since Caleb Carr’s The Alienist.

  • In Mississippi Noir, literary crime fiction master Tom Franklin has assembled a phenomenal short-story collection that highlights a mesmerizing and diverse set of styles and subject matter. Urban, suburban, and rural settings alike unveil new shades of darkness that fall upon Mississippi’s past and present.

    Mississippi Noir features brand-new stories by Ace Atkins, William Boyle, Megan Abbott, Jack Pendarvis, Dominiqua Dickey, Michael Kardos, Jamie Paige, Jimmy Cajoleas, Chris Offutt, Michael Farris Smith, Andrew Paul, Lee Durkee, Robert Busby, John M. Floyd, RaShell R. Smith-Spears, and Mary Miller.

  • Edited by the bestselling author of The Ice Harvest, St. Louis Noir thickens the Midwest quotient for the Akashic Noir series.

    Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

    In the wake of Chicago Noir, Twin Cities Noir, and Kansas City Noir—all popular volumes in the Akashic Noir Series—comes the latest Midwest installment, St. Louis Noir. Masterfully curated by Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest (adapted for film, starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton), this volume will chill the listener with heartland menace.

    Featuring brand new stories by Calvin Wilson, LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn, John Lutz, Paul D. Marks, Colleen J. McElroy, Jason Makansi, S. L. Coney, Michael Castro, Laura Benedict, Jedidiah Ayres, Umar Lee, Chris Barsanti, L. J. Smith, and Scott Phillips.

  • Jennie Gerhardt is the tragic story of an innocent, caring, beautiful young girl from an extremely poor family who throughout her life is drawn into affairs with two different men from a much higher social class. How members of her family, the family of one of the wealthy men, and society in general react to her situation is the basis of this classic story.

    Jennie Gerhardt was Theodore Dreiser’s first true commercial success and is generally regarded as one of his best novels.

  • Marry new technology to old-fashioned policing, and you’ve got something special.

    The car is found just outside Picketsville, Virginia, a smoking ruin of twisted metal and shattered glass. It takes only a glance to confirm that this is Ike Schwartz’s car. Ever since he left the CIA, the incorruptible Picketsville sheriff has made enemies at home and abroad. Now one has caught up with him with a bomb powerful enough to turn quiet Main Street into a smoking crater. Is this a cop killing―or domestic terrorism? The town plunges into mourning, and Ike’s wife Ruth, the president of the local college, puts on a brave face as the sheriff’s department organizes a manhunt, the likes of which Picketsville has never seen.

    Back at the CIA, Ike’s old colleague Charlie Garland joins the hunt, becoming fixated on a blurry videotape of the crime scene. Charlie’s elastic job description includes monitoring Ike’s life. Investigations―led by more than one player―fan around and out of Picketsville as far as a small town in Idaho where Martin Pangborn, head of the radical militia called the Fifty-First Star, runs his organization. If some banks and businesses are too big to fail, are some people too deeply connected or too wealthy to bring to justice? Is Martin Pangborn such a person? The Fifty-First Star’s tentacles run long and deep. But the Vulture is something no one, not even Martin Pangborn, is prepared for.

  • A reckoning with the persistence of evil in post–Civil War Atlanta

    After leaving Atlanta in disgrace three years before, detective Thomas Canby is called back to the city on the eve of Atlanta’s 1881 International Cotton Exposition to partner with Atlanta’s first African American police officer, Cyrus Underwood. The case they’re assigned is chilling: a serial murderer who seems to be violently targeting Atlanta’s wealthiest black entrepreneurs. The killer’s method is both strange and unusually gruesome. On each victim’s mutilated body is inscribed a letter of the alphabet, beginning with “M.” The oligarchy of Atlanta’s most prominent white businessmen―the same men who ran Canby out of town, known more openly before Reconstruction as “the Ring”―is anxious to solve the murders before they lose the money they’ve invested in both the exposition and the city’s industrialization, even if resolution comes at the expense of justice.

    After Canby’s arrival the murders become increasingly disturbing and unpredictable, and his interference threatens to send the investigation spinning off in the wrong direction. As the toll of innocent victims rises, Canby must face down enduring racism and his own prejudices, to see clearly the source of these bloody crimes. Meanwhile, if he can restore his reputation, he might win back the woman he loves.

    With scrupulous attention to historical detail, Edgar Award finalist Matthew Guinn draws listeners into a vortex of tense, atmospheric storytelling, confronting the sins and fears of both old South and new.

  • From internationally acclaimed, Man Booker Prize–winning author Anne Enright comes a shattering novel set in a small town on Ireland’s Atlantic coast. The Green Road is a tale of family and fracture, compassion and selfishness—a book about the gaps in the human heart and how we strive to fill them.

    Spanning thirty years, The Green Road tells the story of Rosaleen, matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart. As they grow up, Rosaleen’s four children leave the west of Ireland for lives they could have never imagined in Dublin, New York, and Mali, West Africa. In her early old age their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she’s decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for a last Christmas, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

    A profoundly moving work about a family’s desperate attempt to recover the relationships they’ve lost and forge the ones they never had, The Green Road is Enright’s most mature, accomplished, and unforgettable novel to date.

  • World-renowned composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores, Philip Glass has almost single-handedly crafted the dominant sound of late twentieth-century classical music. In Words without Music, he creates an entirely new and unexpected voice: that of a born storyteller and insightful chronicler, whose behind-the-scenes recollections allow one to experience the moments of creative fusion when life magically merges with art.

    The transformation of a young man from budding musical prodigy to world-renowned composer is the story of this commanding memoir. From his childhood in post–World War II Baltimore to his student days in Chicago, at Juilliard, and his first journey to Paris, where he studied under the formidable Nadia Boulanger, Glass recalls his early mentors, while reconstructing the places that shaped his artistic consciousness. From a life-changing trip to India, where he met with gurus, to the gritty streets of New York in the 1970s, where he worked day jobs as a furniture mover, cabbie, and unlicensed plumber, Glass leads the life of a Parisian bohemian artist transported to twentieth-century America.

    Even after Glass' talent was first widely recognized with the sensational premiere of Einstein on the Beach in 1976, he never abandoned his ideals throughout his collaborations with such artists as Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Robert Wilson, Doris Lessing, and Martin Scorsese. And in this loving and slyly humorous autobiography, Philip Glass re-creates in words the thrill that results from artistic creation, ultimately affirming the power of music to change the world.

    BONUS FEATURE: Includes "Etude No. 2," written and performed by Philip Glass

  • Have you ever wondered what it's like to live through a bioweapon attack or to have every aspect of your life governed by invisible ants? In Cory Doctorow's collection of novellas, he wields his formidable experience in technology and computing to give us mind-bending sci-fi tales that explore the possibilities of information technology—and its various uses—run amok.

    "Anda's Game" is a spin on the bizarre new phenomenon of "cyber sweatshops," in which people are paid very low wages to play online games all day in order to generate in-game wealth, which can be converted into actual money. Another tale tells of the heroic exploits of "sysadmins"—systems administrators—as they defend the cyberworld, and hence the world at large, from worms and bioweapons. And yes, there is a story about zombies too.

  • Stuffology 101 is for those of us who want to get the clutter out of our lives without being featured on reality TV. We can still use our bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen, but we harbor secrets.

    1. Do you race around to pick up piles when someone's at the door?
    2. Do you close the door to hide your stuff in the spare room?
    3. Do you still have boxes to unpack from your last move a dozen years ago?
    4. Are you unable to focus because your mind is so frazzled?

    Stuffologists Brenda Avadian and Eric Riddle share four decades of experience dealing with stuff—or rather, clutter. Inside Stuffology 101, you'll find fun and flexible approaches to get your mind out of what you define as clutter. Funny, serious, and humbling stories are woven in with tips to help you clear the toxic clutter out of your life.

    At the end of your life, what will matter most—things or people? Are you ready to manage the stuff in your life?

  • What do bald men in skirts, ancient geeks, pompous popes, and bickering bishops have in common? They all took part in shaping the calendar that hangs on your wall. Together with a host of famous and not-so-famous characters, they adjusted, fine-tuned, and tinkered around with what would eventually become the western world’s most popular tool for keeping track of time.

    When a crotchety, down-on-his-luck old man turns up as a temporary employee in Lindsie’s father’s bookshop, she and her friend Evan feel sorry for him. But after they follow him to his makeshift home, Mr. S. Kronos (a.k.a. Father Time) drags them on a wild ride through five thousand years of hilarious history, insisting they meet the calendar’s creators. An astonishing parade of kings and stargazers, priests and presidents keeps them spinning through space until they land back in the twenty-first century, never again to take the calendar for granted.

  • Dominic Cantori is an orphan. Ashamed of his situation, he avoids making friends for fear of exposing his terrible secret. One day on a class trip to Ellis Island, a tour guide asks everyone about their families. Terrified of having to answer, Dominic immediately flees from the class and hides in a closet, where he falls asleep for hours.

    When he wakes up, the museum is deserted. Lonely and afraid, he picks up one display telephone after another, listening to the recorded voices of immigrants who describe their lives in faraway countries and their journeys to Ellis Island. To Dominic's surprise, the voice of an old Italian immigrant speaks directly to him! Before he knows it, he's transported back in time—to Italy in 1908. There, he unlocks the door to his past and discovers just what it feels like to be loved by his own family.

  • Has a mummy's spirit really moved into Andy's body?!

    What do you do when it seems like everyone in your family has done something magnificent—everyone, that is, except you? That's Andy's problem. He just wants to do something special.

    When his class visits an Egyptian exhibit, he figures it'll be just another field trip. But he's wrong, because somehow a mummy's spirit seems to have given him a weird magic power. Suddenly, Andy's magnificent—all he has to do is wish for whatever he wants! But being extraordinary has its drawbacks. And Andy soon learns to be very, very careful of what he wishes for.

  • Celebrated author Jim Harrison, whose robust, tender, and deeply felt books have made their mark on the American literary landscape, here delivers a collection of three novellas infused with all the wisdom and generous spirit that have made him a master writer.

    In the title novella, “The Summer He Didn’t Die,” Brown Dog, a hapless Michigan Indian, is trying to parent his two stepchildren on meager resources; it helps that his charms are irresistible to the new dentist in town.

    “Republican Wives” is a riotous satire on the sexual neuroses of the political right and the irrational nature of love—which, when thwarted, can easily turn into an urge to murder.

    “Tracking” gives the author’s life story as a tale of the places that have marked it.

    With wit as sharp as ever and prose as lush as any Harrison has yet written, The Summer He Didn’t Die is a joyful ode to our journey on this earth.

  • In this inspirational collection of twelve sermons, George MacDonald offers compelling insight into the life of Jesus Christ.

    MacDonald stressed the necessity of salvation and the importance of combining Christian faith with obedience to Jesus’ teachings. He also believed that God’s universal grace would eventually save everyone.

    Though written in the mid-nineteenth century, these sermons, including “Mirrors of Christ,” “Glorified through Trouble, “Salvation from Sin,” and “The Giver of Rest,” continue to provide contemporary followers with the spiritual guidance they seek.

    For those who wish to know Jesus better, this is a book you will want to hear.

  • “I urge the need of interesting our children in history at an early age. From observation I find that the minds of children who study history early expand more rapidly than those who are restricted to the limits of stories in readers. While teaching pupils to read, why not fix in their minds the names and deeds of our great men, thereby laying the foundation of historical knowledge and instilling true patriotism into their youthful souls?

    “In looking over the lives of our American heroes we find not one which presents such a picture of moral grandeur as that of Lee. Place this picture before the little ones and you cannot fail to make them look upward to noble ideals.”—Mary L. Williamson, 1898

  • A rare pearl is fought over during a hurricane on a South Sea island. A zealous missionary sets out to spread the gospel in a land of cannibals. The son of a Polynesian chief becomes the slave of a white man. These stories and others portray life in the South Seas in the days of tall ships over a century ago. In powerful and compelling language that seems not the least bit dated, Jack London tells eight tales of high daring and great savagery, of bravery and death, even of occasional humor, that could only take place in the exotic South Sea islands. Based around themes London considered important—race, culture, justice, and heroism—the stories derive their intensity from the author’s own far-flung adventures, conveying an impassioned, unsparing vision borne only of experience.

    Included here are the following stories: “The House of Mapuhi,” “The Whale Tooth,” “Mauki,” “Yah! Yah! Yah!” “The Heathen,” “The Terrible Solomons,” “The Inevitable White Man,” and “The Seed of McCoy.”

  • Known for his military prowess and Christian character, Thomas Jackson was one of the Confederacy’s greatest commanders—and one of God’s most devoted warriors. Williamson’s biography traces the general’s life from orphaned child, West Point cadet, and Sunday school teacher to military institute professor, Mexican War officer, and Civil War legend.

    “In this brief sketch of our great Southern hero, I have endeavored to portray, amid the blaze of his matchless military genius, the unchanging rectitude of his conduct, the stern willpower by which he conquered all difficulties, his firm belief in an overruling Providence, and his entire submission to the Divine Will. These traits of character were the cornerstones upon which he reared the edifice of his greatness and upon which the young people of our day will do well to build.”—Mary L. Williamson

  • On New York City’s Washington Square lives Catherine Sloper, a shy and plain young woman who is tyrannized by her wealthy, overbearing father. When young Morris Townsend begins to court her, Dr. Sloper distrusts his motives, believing that the young man could not possibly love his daughter. Both lovers are obstinate in their affections; but when Dr. Sloper threatens to disinherit Catherine, Townsend disappears, leaving Catherine to humiliation, heartache, and lonely spinsterhood. Years later, after her father’s death, Townsend returns, and Catherine must make up her own mind about his intentions.

  • One of the most popular American novels of all time, Ben-Hur vividly reimagines the oppressive Roman occupation of ancient Palestine and the rise of Christianity. The saga of Judah Ben-Hur’s spiritual journey from slavery to vengeance to redemption is both a vivid historical adventure and a powerful story of one man’s religious awakening.

    Born the son of a Jewish nobleman, Ben-Hur is condemned to a life of slavery when his former friend wrongly accuses him of attempting to kill a Roman official. While his mother and sister are imprisoned in a leper colony, Ben-Hur heroically escapes to challenge Massala’s domination in a chariot race. Before the cheering multitudes at the Roman Circus in Antioch, he achieves his revenge and glory. But it is later, at the foot of a cross on a hill in Jerusalem, that he fulfills his true destiny.

  • Revolution is brewing on twenty-first-century Luna, a moon-based penal colony where oppressed “Loonies” are being exploited by a harsh Authority that controls it from Earth. Against all odds, a ragtag collection of dissidents has banded together in revolt, including a young female radical, an elderly academic, a one-armed computer jock, and a nearly omnipotent supercomputer named Mike, whose sentience is known only to this inner circle and who is committed to the revolution for reasons of his own.

    Drawing many historical parallels with the War of Independence, Heinlein’s fourth Hugo Award–winning novel is a gripping tale bursting with politics, humanity, passion, innovative technical speculation, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom.

    Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, winning the Hugo Award for best novel a record four times. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was the last of these Hugo-winning novels and is widely considered his finest work.

  • O. Henry wove several stories together into this highly episodic narrative, taking his title and inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” in Alice in Wonderland.

    The stories are set in the fictional country of Anchuria in Central America, a banana republic where larceny is rampant and revolution is lurking in every impoverished back alley. O. Henry offers a cutting satire of contemporary politics and prejudices. Nevertheless, an essential middle-class morality prevails, in which lovers are reunited, poverty obliterated, character rewarded, and sentiment satisfied.

  • “What Would Jesus Do?” Here is the book that originally inspired this popular and highly important question, a bestselling phenomenon that continues to inspire Christians everywhere. It is the soul-stirring novel of men and women torn between their faith and the demands, compulsions, and temptations of life.

    Dr. Henry Maxwell, respected pastor of the First Church of Raymond, struggles with the idea that Christian discipleship demands more than mental assent. He suggests an electrifying challenge to his congregation: to preface every action with the question: What would Jesus do in this situation if he were me? This is the moving, dramatic story of a handful of Americans—a newspaper editor, a college president, a railroad executive, a pastor, a singer, a writer, a wealthy philanthropist—who pledge to walk in “the steps of Jesus.”